An Tuagh - Snake Pit Poetry

Details

Description

Snake Pit Poetry
from the album "Bard and Skald" by An Tuagh
https://antuagh.bandcamp.com/
https://ffm.to/bardandskald

(Song/Poem - Old Norse)

“I did not look to a snake to be my bane,
things happen very often to one that one thinks of the least.”

A song loosely based on the Krákumál - The poem supposedly written by the ever famous Viking King, Ragnar Loðbrók, as he lay dying in a pit of snakes he was thrown into by the English King, Ælla. It foretells how Ragnar’s sons will take revenge for the deeds done to him here.
lyrics
Eigi hugðak orma
at aldrlagi mínu;
verðr mjök mörgu sinni
þats minnst varir sjálfan

Nú munk nár af bragði
ok nær dýrum deyja

Gnyðja mundu grísir
ef galtar hag vissi
mér er gnótt at grandi
grafa inn rönum sínum
ok harðliga hváta
hafa mik sogit, ormar
nú munk nár af bragði
ok nær dýrum deyja

(English)
I did not look to a snake,
to be my bane,
Things happen very often to one,
that one thinks of the least.

Soon now will my body,
die among the beasts.

The young pigs would squeal,
if they knew the state of the boar,
of the injury done to me.
Snakes dig in my flesh,
stab at me harshly,
and have sucked on me.
soon now will my body,
die among the beasts


Original Composition - Einar Selvik (2017)
Cover Arrangement - An Tuagh (2021)
Photography by Andrew Rae Photographer